PhD Thesis Proposal Digital Twin for Short Term Planning in Surface Treatment Industries

Global Information

This Ph

D is part of a supervision by IMT Mines Albi CGI team (France)\n\n

Location : Albi, CGI https://cgi.imt-mines-albi.fr/

Expected start date : September or October 2026 depending on applicant availability

Funding : CORAC PME Infinity

Keywords : Digital Twin engineering, coupling Simulation-optimisation-AI, surface treatment industry.\n\n

Context

In the context of Industry 4.0 and beyond, industrial stakeholders are deploying digitization strategies where operational systems are connected to increasingly intelligent cyber systems. In this context, the organizational digital twin refers to the system that enables bidirectional interaction between a physical organization (people and systems) and its virtual replica, with the goal of globally managing flows.

Recent reviews and typologies (e.g., Kritzinger et al., 2018; Onaji et al., 2022; Soori et al., 2023; Kober et al., 2024; Traoré, 2024; Namaki Araghi et al., 2025) on digital twins in manufacturing show that the digital twin manages workshop data and interoperates with various systems (MES, ERP, traceability, quality). It uses physics-based or data-driven simulation models focused on flow management, and orchestrates services oriented toward data processing or simulation models for decision support. The digital twin has various objectives (assessing the impact of changes and performance, optimization) and interacts with users as needed to support decisions at different time horizons (tactical and operational) and potentially of different natures (planning, maintenance, quality). Implementing such a system represents a major organizational and technical challenge that must be adapted to the specificities and evolving needs of industry.

The INFINITY project aims